Samsung Galaxy Note II

The Galaxy Note II features a 5.5-inch HD Super AMOLED (active-matrix organic LED) display with a 16:9 screen ratio and a resolution of 1,280 by 720. It runs a 1.6GHz quad-core processor and will ship with Google's latest version of Android, known as Jelly Bean.

In Samsung, Apple now has the type of competitor that it had long enjoyed doing without. On Aug. 29, Samsung introduced a global Galaxy Note II at the IFA 2012 trade show in Berlin, making it Samsung's "fifth iconic device in 12 months," Teri Daley, Samsung's vice president of public relations, recently told U.S. journalists. Daley described the last 12 months as "the year of innovation" and the Note II as a device that's "going to set the bar for what all smartphones are going to be expected to do in the future." Samsung introduced the original Galaxy Note in September 2011. It featured a 5.3-inch displayenormous by any standardand raised eyebrows for re-approaching a form factor that Dell had failed miserably at a year earlier. But by mid 2011, the tablet format was one consumers were comfortable with and the Note thrived, exceeding even Samsung's expectations. With the Note II, Samsung has increased the display to 5.5 inches, slimmed down the bezel to further increase the display area, increased the battery by 25 percent while maintaining the original Note's weight and tweaked and improved the deviceand its accompanying S Penin numerous ways. Later this year, Samsung will offer a U.S. version of the Note II. "We're committed to the form factor," said Daley. "You're going to see amazing upgrades to this device." Here, eWEEK offers an early review of the Galaxy Note II.

Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.